ATLANTA Snow In, 2010!

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Question, Captmojo, have you ever had to use the truck emergency (runaway) runout ramps, either there or anywhere else? Do you know anyone who has? It must really tear up the truck, but better that than get killed running off the mountain.

No. Once I thought about it while descending Alt221 from Little Switzerland to Marion NC. I was driving a 1984 Cadillac. The brakes were smokin' pretty good! I saw many, and was passed by a few, log trucks going down the same mountain. It's some scary shit!

If you hit into one of those ramps, you may save your life or some others...but you'll lose your job...maybe. Most companies will equate it with an accident. In fact, nearly anytime a wrecker should be dispatched in rescue, these fools in trucking management are subject to calling it an accident.

Here's the secret to a safe descent. Your brakes are/should be considered a heat factory. The friction that builds up between shoe/pad and drum/disc can be tremendous. Fire needs oxygen to manifest. The key is to keep constant contact with your brakes, so as not to allow an air gap between the two. The heated air pressure that accumulates between them will actually prevent the two from coming together, thus disallowing your braking parts to work at all! Lower gears and a foot constantly on the pedal is the best method. This is true for any type vehicle. Anyone considering taking a MOTOR HOME through the highlands, this applies to you as well.

Step on the brake, after down-shifting, as if you were stepping on an egg shell. Watch the speedometer. Most steep grades will have posted speed limits for trucks and that should apply for all heavyweight vehicles. A general rule of thumb is that a descent should be in the same gear as an climb. I prefer the speed limit method. Learn what is the maximum speed that can be expected from every transmission gear and know that speed will still be expected to rise above it on these downhill grades.

The trickiest part of coming down from Boone/Deep Gap, is that quarter mile stretch of flatland in the middle. There's a truck pull-off on the shoulder, with a large sign encouraging trucks to enter and cool their brakes. I've been lucky that I'm always coming down empty and don't have to use it, but if I were loaded...I'm in there.

One other note. Should you see a vehicle with burning brakes along the way or at the bottom...STAY AWAY!!!!!!!!!!! Their brakes are not likely to be fully engaged due to the high air pressure build-up I mentioned earlier.

Thanks for the tips and general advice. We're usually in my wife's minivan or my midsized sedan, and we've never had a problem with brakes when coming down from the mountain, but I'm always worried about the trucks. And hitting a deer, or bear, would seriously ruin one's day - I'd never thought about that coming down the mountain before.

Many years ago my dad told me about a "near event" that happened to him coming down a mountain somewhere up north. A truck was tailgating him coming down a mountain for quite a while, and he kept going faster and faster to stay ahead of him. Finally he had enough distance to turn off the road and did so, and the truck whizzed on by. Later, at a rest stop he stopped at the trucker, who was already there, came up to him and said "I'm sure glad you pulled off! I had no brakes!!!!!" Good driving by both saved two lives that night.

[captmojo]

The mountain down from Boone on 421 is one of the most dangerous around here. Very steep. Add to this, Black Mountain, though wider. WVa has Flat Top...really bad. I've not had Rockies experience but I know they're worse. It was bad enough in a car once for me around Lake Tahoe.
Those grade percentage signs, at the top of the hills, indicate that for every 100 feet of forward travel, how many feet of drop you'll experience.
Ex. 8% means a drop of 8 feet per 100 forward.

[DukieInKansas]

One more thing about driving down mountains. Whatever you are driving, always keep in mind that you should maintain a speed which can allow for being able to make a stop. The mountains are generally a wilderness and are abundant with wildlife. Drivers should always be in anticipation that a deer, or even larger critter, may be standing in the roadway just around that next curve and be prepared for evasive action. Most often, the best action is to set up your speed the same way as you may to avoid the so-called, outrunning your headlights.

Also something to remember on a bicycle. I remember a cow coming out of the ditch along the side of the road as I was getting to the end of a descent in the Snowy range (Wyoming). Fortunately, I heard him and slowed even more. It would not have been fun to have met the cow further up the pass when I finally decided to start braking at about 48mph.

Thanks for the driving tips.

[CathyCA]

I hate driving in the mountains. When I lived in California, to get to the beach about 45 minutes away, I had to drive over a mountain range.

I get car sick fairly easily. It's no fun to arrive at the beach feeling woozy because you just drove through the mountains.

[captmojo]

I hate driving in the mountains. When I lived in California, to get to the beach about 45 minutes away, I had to drive over a mountain range.

I get car sick fairly easily. It's no fun to arrive at the beach feeling woozy because you just drove through the mountains.

Aren't 'cha glad you've got a fine path to the beaches here?

[devildeac]

Thus ends today's driving sermon.

Good stuff, capt. seriously. Thanks.

[CathyCA]

I hate driving in the mountains. When I lived in California, to get to the beach about 45 minutes away, I had to drive over a mountain range.

I get car sick fairly easily. It's no fun to arrive at the beach feeling woozy because you just drove through the mountains.

Aren't 'cha glad you've got a fine path to the beaches here?

Yes, I am! And I'm glad that the beaches are warm in the summer.

What was it that Mark Twain said about the summers in San Francisco?